Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Individual liberty creates power for individuals, and when combined, makes a nation the most powerful.
In plain terms
A nation with the most freedom is the most powerful.
What can you take from it?
Individual freedom strengthens the nation overall.

Where it applies

  • policy debate
  • national strategy
  • rights advocacy

Putting it to work

  • protect rights
  • value autonomy
  • invest in individuals

Questions to consider

  • Does freedom make a nation stronger?
  • What is the balance between individual and group?

Another view

Unchecked individual power can sometimes undermine collective security.

More from John Quincy Adams

  1. I can never join with my voice in the toast which I see in the papers attributed to one of our gallant naval heroes. I cannot ask of heaven success, even for m…

    Permalink to quote #2
  2. This house will bear witness to his piety; this town, his birthplace, to his munificence; history to his patriotism; posterity to the depth and compass of his …

    Permalink to quote #4
  3. Think of your forefathers! Think of your posterity!

    Permalink to quote #1

Related quotes

  1. We decline the claim to power by parties which want to own their followers body and soul, and which want to put themselves over and above the whole nation.

    Franz von PapenFranz von Papen quote #3
  2. This breakdown of social order - rules of dress, sexual controls, speech patterns, family structures - has been seen as a great victory for the individual. On …

    John Ralston SaulJohn Ralston Saul quote #9
  3. Arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness.

    George WashingtonGeorge Washington quote #1